There was a time when there typically was a religious right candidate in the Republican primaries. Such candidates would inevitably be beaten by the establishment candidate. Today the religious right dominates the GOP, and almost all candidates promote social conservatism. It will be interesting to see how many candidates sign a pledge from Family Leader. Michele Bachmann was the first to sign this:

Presidential candidates who sign the pledge must agree to personal fidelity to his or her spouse, the appointment of “faithful constitutionalists” as judges, opposition to any redefinition of marriage, and prompt reform of uneconomic and anti-marriage aspects of welfare policy, tax policy and divorce law.

The Marriage Vow also outlines support for the legal advocacy for the federal Defense of Marriage Act, humane efforts to protect women and children, rejection of Sharia Islam, safeguards for all married and unmarried U.S. military service members, and commitment to downsizing government and the burden upon American families.

In addition, candidates are asked to recognize that “robust childrearing and reproduction is beneficial to U.S. demographic, economic, strategic and actuarial health and security.”

In addition, Think Progress reports that this calls for the banning of “all forms” of pornography and states that homosexuality is both a choice and a health risk. Undoubtedly conservatives will fail to see how these conflict with claims to support limited government, not to mention violating the First Amendment.

I would love to see Democratic candidates counter this with a pledge to support individual liberty, including each individual’s right to chose who to marry, uphold the First Amendment, and preserve a social safety net to protect families in need. Unfortunately we know that Democrats are not very likely to openly stand up for liberal principles in such a manner.

“appointment of “faithful constitutionalists” as judges….
prompt reform of uneconomic and anti-marriage aspects of welfare policy…. safeguards for all married and unmarried U.S. military service members”
for all of those – how do you define THAT?
‘faithful constitutionalists’ i hope doesnt mean a definition being “christian” faithful ‘constitutionalists’. tho i do know Bachmann is one who would hew to the ‘originalist’ viewpoint, i suspect the christian rider is added there implicit or not.

reform of “uneconomic’ and anti marriage aspects – antimarriage for hetero? gay? (not a hard que) but of welfare? which aspects of welfare have a bearing on that? ….as a que to bachmann, not to the reading public with a brain, tho those outside the US could do with a quick primer there.

and safeguards for married and unmarrieds in the US military, does the US military give equal pay to women in the Forces, BTW? whether they are marrieds or unmarrieds, i doubt thats the thrust of Bachmanns policy tho again i have to ask, since i suspect there is no safeguard there.

i rather suspect the ‘safeguard’ in mind in that case is keeping the DADT walls up so ‘traditional’ family types in the Military dont have to be offended by the non trads, rather than equal pay safeguards but im not sure that reading has ever occurred to her either.

just my ideas immediately occurring on reading the above, let alone twhatever else is in the rest of the pledge… i think i might leave that to others to comment. blah.

We could start by hanging a name on it that gives a better picture of what she’s trying to do. Something like “Sharia Conservatism”. Of course, unlike the names the GOP invents for policies it opposes, this one will be factually accurate.

Barf bag in hand, reading through his tripe of racism, homophobia and religious insanity the supremacist bolt-on ‘robust childbearing and reproduction is beneficial to’… THE WHITE RACE… was most interesting. Whites are losing the birth rate war.

It is gratifying to find so many folks now who recognize that there is very little difference between evangelical Christeranity and Islamist hard core Shariah. Both lead to irrational behavior, from forcing women to have babies they do not want to beheading her for having adultery. Evangelicalism and Sharia Islam are two sides of the same coin.